Trial 5: ENDGAME

Alann opened his eyes next, and squinted at the room around him. He brought his hand up to his chest and exhaled, as nervous sweat fell down his face. He patted his pockets, before bringing out his glasses, still crushed and broken a little bit. He put them on and craned his neck to look at everyone. He shook his head slowly confused by everything going on, but eventually smiled. He looked to Lys, "I uh...really wish you hadn't of broken my glasses now." He chuckled to himself, still clearly uncomfortable with what was going on.

"Wh...What...?" Leit's eyes opened slowly at everyone's voices. His stomach churned as he looked around, and he flinched at the sight of Heather, "You! How did...?" He looked around at the group, and grew even more pale after a few seconds of silence. "We are...all here. We all died then? This is the afterlife, non?"

"Not quite." Julie responded curtly, not adding any insight to the matter.

"What is this exactly then?" Heather's calm expression hadn't changed.

Julie looked thoughtful for a moment, "My only guess would be...a reset." She looked unsure, but continued anyway, "Monokuma described it as a simulation. A virtual reality."

"That...That is absurd! Ludicrous!"

"I must admit, it is a bit far-fetched. Simply entertaining that bear's games is-"

"It would make a lot of sense, wouldn't it? We all come this school for our first day, we pass out and wake up in an auditorium with a robot bear, and then we are all told that we lost our memories. Honestly I can't think of anything else that makes more sense."

Alann put his fist up to his chin, "Still, that's not a particularly easy task. Saying that it's virtual is all well and good, but how could one person, or even a group of people get the resources for this? Even if the organization was exceptionally powerful, or wealthy, we're talking about things that haven't even been invented yet."

"We still have that two year gap."

"You would believe that we lost our memory still? After all the lies that have been spun around this place?"

Heather grabbed her arm and looked down, "...I know what I saw in those pictures. The marks, the wounds, everything about those pictures hit a chord. I...I know that our memories were tampered with. I am sure of it."

"Why wouldn't you have? " Julie asked, observing Felix closely.

"You can't remember seeing them that way now, but what if you did before?"

Felix had no reply to this, instead he sat down and put his head in his hands, desperately trying to remember what it seemed he had forgotten.

"Heather, knock it off," Liam sighed. "You are really not helping anyone here." He shook his head. "Felix, what do you mean by 'they were definitely mine'? What about them makes you so sure?"

"I've never met anyone who has the same art style as I do. Just, the way they were drawn and shaded makes me sure they were mine." He spoke into his hands, not looking up.

"James said our families were safe." Alicia pointed out. She put a hand on Felix's shoulder to reassure him.

"Nobody would have had to draw them," Liam pointed out to Felix. "It could have just been like any other illusion."

"We're in a program. Someone would have to program that with his exact style. Doesn't that seem improbable?"

"Is that the truth? The absolute truth?" Leit looked excited, and his voice sounded strained as he spoke louder, "Our families- MY family...is safe?"

"Don't let Alicia give you false hope. She just remembered things wrong. James said that Felix's family was safe. He didn't mention the rest of yours."

Leit's shoulders sank, and for a moment, he looked cross, "Who is this 'James,' anyway? What does he know?"

"More than any of us, apparently." Julie crossed her arms and frowned at the ground.

The room stayed quiet for awhile, with everyone exchanging awkward glances. Alann cleared his throat, "So uh...Where do we go from here? We're stuck in a simulation, and we're in this courtroom, but...what are we supposed to do?"

Julie sighed, "We wait for the reset."

"Wh-What?" Leit's eyes went wide.

"It's the only thing that makes sense. They're going to reset us, back to the auditorium on the first day. And we'll have to relive everything we've been through already. Maybe they're doing it to see if something will change."

"A type of eternal punishment for us. We'll have to suffer for our mistakes."

"If you turn that around, they could be testing us to see if we ever overcome it. As if this is a trial."

"Or...Or maybe it's a psychological experiment. They have to do several tests to gather all of the results."

"Or it could just be revenge." Julie began yelling, "Did we do something wrong to you, James? How about you, Sam? What do you have to do with all of this?"

Leit looked down, "How many times... have we watched each other die?" He began trembling, "If this is a reset, then how many more have we been through? How many times have we forgotten?"

Alann looked over at Leit, and then looked away, "How many times have I resorted to that? To killing myself over fear..."

"Do any of you think that we ever lost? And if we did, did anything change with it? Did they...actually escape...?"

Felix looked around as each person spoke. He stayed quiet however, he didn't know what to do or think.

Alicia looked at her friends and bit her lip. She was sure she would never have killed anybody, but how sure? She didn't know anymore.

"Having doubts, Julie?" Liam asked, raising a brow. "I'm surprised, that isn't very like you."

"Yeah well, it's also not like me to wake up in a cafeteria surrounded by people who I watched die, but I guess exceptions happen." Julie frowned at Liam, "Plus there's way too much information that we don't have access to. If anyone else has any brilliant ideas, I'd love to hear them."

Liam shook his head. "No, I have nothing to add. I'm not going to give in to despair, however. If this is to be our prison, then so be it."

"yeah, might as well make the best of it?"Chris added.